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The All Pakistan Shipping Association (Apsa) has described the installation of scanners by the National Logistic Cell at the ports and terminals as a commercial venture which would not only raise the freight levels but also adversely affect the exports.
Apsa founder Chairman Mohammad Farrukh Qaisar, in a letter to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Chairman, said that the NLC proposes to arbitrary recover dollar four per TEU from the export trade for the compulsory usage of the containers for screening of all export cargo containers.
He estimated that the projected accruable profit in the first year was expected to be dollar four million based on the container throughput of about one million TEUs per annum for both the Karachi Port and Port Qasim.
He said that with 11 percent annual growth of containers volumes, there would be an increase of dollar 0.4 million annually in the profits earned by the NLC through the subject commercial venture. Any charge in that regard collected from lines/carriers would be reflected in the export freight rates, he said.
The Apsa founder Chairman said the 15 percent central excise duty (CED) on shipping commission of the export shipments announced in the new budget had already hit the freight rates, adding that was in addition to the 15 percent CED already charged on stevedoring services negative incidence on the export freight level.
Farrukh Qaisar listed some points to be considered by all stakeholders before making any final decision on installation of scanners.
Firstly, he said, the scanning of containers was not a World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime requirement, nor an International Ships and Port Security (ISPS) Code obligation.
Secondly, the government was acquiring subject equipment trough its resources, grants, hence there was no rationale for any commercial department to burden the trade and citizens for its cost, he added.
It is incomprehensible that why should a subject charge is recovered from the users when likewise no such charges are payable by passengers and cargo at airports whilst being scanned and screened.
It further pointed out that the usage time of subject scanning of container traffic would require minimum 15 to 20 minutes per container. With the present volume of the export traffic passing into the ports on daily basis during work hours, would require extremely large inventory of subject equipment per entry points, terminal, wharf, per port for clearance.
The Apsa chief maintained that all international sea ports in the region and overseas had not felt the need of such scanners logically because they conducted complete physical customs examination as in vogue in Pakistan. Also the subject equipment was unable to scan/detect the high-risk maritime cargoes such as weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and explosives, he said.
He appealed to the EPB Chairman to convene a meeting of all the port users, trade, regulatory bodies and service providers to enable all concerned to positively engage in the resolution of fast developing controversy between the exporters and the authorities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2004

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